Sauna pants, also known as sauna suits or sweat suits, have gained popularity as a tool to enhance workouts and potentially accelerate weight loss. These garments, often made of neoprene or similar heat-trapping materials, are designed to increase body temperature and induce profuse sweating during physical activity. While proponents tout various benefits, it's crucial to understand both the potential advantages and the associated risks before incorporating sauna pants into your fitness routine.
What are Sauna Pants?
A sauna suit is a workout garment designed to hold in heat. Many suits are made of neoprene and resemble a wet suit. You can get suits that cover the whole body or separates for just the upper or lower body. When you exercise in a sauna suit, you trap heat around your body and produce more sweat than you would in typical workout gear. Sauna suit makers suggest that the effort of working out in the suit increases the intensity of a workout without having to increase your actual level of effort. The result theoretically would be higher fitness levels and possibly increased weight loss after regular use of a sauna suit.
Purported Benefits of Sauna Pants
Increased Sweating and Water Weight Loss
The primary function of sauna pants is to promote sweating. By trapping heat, these garments elevate the body's core temperature, leading to increased perspiration. This can result in a temporary loss of water weight, which may be appealing to athletes like boxers and MMA fighters trying to meet weight class requirements. However, it's essential to recognize that this weight loss is primarily due to fluid loss and will be regained once the body is rehydrated.
Enhanced Heat Acclimation
There’s been reported evidence that wearing a sauna suit improves heat acclimation. Training in the elevated heat created by a sauna suit can lead to heat acclimation. Heat acclimation (HA) is an intervention undertaken for athletic and occupational purposes, completed in the days or weeks prior to competition or undertaking physical work in heat stress. HA improves the capacity of an individual to dissipate heat via augmented sweating increases the capacity for heat storage by reducing body temperature, and reduces the negative thermal sensations. The benefits of HA include enhanced endurance performance, improved thermal comfort and a reduction in the likelihood of heat illness.
Potential Cardiovascular Benefits
Research has shown that wearing a sauna suit works well to improve cardiovascular health by increasing the amount of oxygen our bodies can take up.
Read also: Does Red Light Sauna Help with Weight Loss?
Improved Muscle Recovery
With a sauna suit, your muscles take a shorter time to recover. Apart from the improved blood flow, the heat of sauna suit workouts triggers the release of heat shock hormones. These help heal the muscles.
Increased Blood Flow
One of the good things about sweat suits is that they help to increase blood flow. During your workouts, blood will rush to the skin, muscles, and just about anywhere else. Increased circulation means many benefits such as higher energy levels, improved cardio, and healthier body organs. You get all that from exercising in a sauna suit.
Boost Immunity
Surprisingly, sauna suits do boost immunity. This is confirmed by this study on the effects of heat shock proteins in the human body. Now, sweat suits work by retaining body heat.
Flexibility
Sauna suits offer amazing flexibility. Yu can wear them almost anywhere, whether indoors or outdoors. If you don't have access to an actual sauna, you can still wear a sauna suit and reap all of the benefits. You can also wear one while out jogging, relaxing at home or even just lounging on the couch!
Usability
You do not need to be a fitness expert to use sauna suits. You do not need any prior experience with them either; only a few tips about how to use the suit safely so you can avoid dehydration and overheating. Some are separate pieces, and a breeze to put on.
Read also: Combining Cardio and Sauna
Warmth
Sweat suits are an excellent training garment if you live in cold climates. Use them to keep your body warm when exercising outdoors. Because of their ability to hold in body heat, you can be sure to keep extreme cold from reaching your body.
Increased Metabolism and Fat Oxidation
Sauna suits burn fat by retaining your body’s heat when working out. The resulting thermal activity leads to increased metabolism, fat oxidation and finally, reduced weight. And no, the suit will not work on its own to burn fat and cause you to lose weight.
Detoxification
The sweat helps expel many toxins including heavy metals and unwanted minerals.
Potential Risks and Safety Considerations
Dehydration
Sauna suits can accelerate weight loss by making you sweat more and therefore lose water weight. You lose a lot of water when exercising with a sauna suit. Unless you’re adequately hydrated, you may end up losing too much of it. That can be dangerous but easy to prevent. You can avoid dehydrating your body by drinking plenty of water just before or after your training sessions.
Overheating and Heat-Related Illness
Any activity that raises your body temperature or leads to excessive sweating can cause heat-related illness. Using a sauna suit without properly replacing lost fluids carries a risk of heat exhaustion. Overheating is common, and you do not need to wear a sauna suit to experience it. As long as you can cool down within 30 minutes, you will recover from heat exhaustion without an issue. If you start to experience heatstroke, then this needs to be treated as an emergency.
Read also: Using Infrared Sauna for Weight Loss
In the UK, it’s suggested that temperatures anywhere between 26-32°C can be dangerous in the case of prolonged exercise. Any temperature above 32°C puts you at risk of heatstroke and exhaustion, and you should avoid exercising in temperatures this high.
Cardiovascular Strain
Exercising in an upper-body sauna suit within temperate conditions induces a greater physiological strain and evokes larger sweat losses compared to exercising in the same conditions, without restricting heat loss.
Skin Irritation and Discomfort
Some sauna suits can make you feel uncomfortable depending on their design. Also if you choose the wrong size for your body and the suit is too loose or too tight. Some types of sauna suit material such neoprene, may trigger allergic reactions in some people. To prevent all these sauna suit downsides, ensure that you pick the right size, design, and material.
Exacerbation of Existing Conditions
You cannot use sweat suits if you suffer from some conditions such as diabetes, for example. That would put you at risk of complications. You cannot use it if you have severe skin allergies such as eczema, too. The suit makes you sweat a lot, which can make you weak or the skin to become itchy. However, not all medical conditions can prevent you from wearing a sauna suit, especially for moderate exercises such as walking.
Myth: Sauna Suits are a Gimmick for Weight Loss
Some skeptics claim that sauna suits are just a gimmick for weight loss and offer no real athletic benefits. Training in the elevated heat created by a sauna suit can lead to heat acclimation. This is a common and costly mistake. A cotton sweatsuit absorbs sweat, becoming heavy, damp, and cold against your skin. This is where tech fabrics truly shine. They provide the powerful thermal effect you need without the discomfort and limitations of basic materials, making your workout both more effective and more enjoyable. Ultimately, a sauna suit is a tool for anyone dedicated to their fitness goals. It's not a shortcut, but an amplifier.
Myth: Sweat is Fat
Let's be clear: sweat is not fat. The pounds you drop instantly are from fluid loss, which you will regain upon rehydrating. However, this statement misses the bigger picture of water weight vs. The key is not what you lose, but how you lose it. A sauna suit increases your body temperature, forcing your body to work harder to cool itself down. Over time, this consistent increase in energy expenditure contributes directly to genuine fat loss.
Myth: Sauna Suits are Unsafe
Safety is a valid concern, and this myth often stems from stories about outdated, non-breathable plastic suits and improper use. So, are sauna suits safe? Any effective training tool requires proper use. The golden rule of responsible use is hydration. Drinking plenty of water before, during, and after your session is non-negotiable. Advanced materials, like those used in the Hotsuit collection, are designed not just to trap heat, but also to be durable and comfortable.
How to Use Sauna Pants Safely
If you choose to use sauna pants, prioritize safety by following these guidelines:
- Consult with a healthcare professional: Talk to your doctor before incorporating sauna pants into your fitness routine, especially if you have any underlying health conditions.
- Hydrate adequately: Drink plenty of water before, during, and after exercise to replace fluids lost through sweating. Aim to drink water consistently throughout the day.
- Start slowly: Begin with shorter workout durations (20-30 minutes) and gradually increase the time as your body adapts to the heat stress.
- Listen to your body: Pay attention to how you feel and stop exercising immediately if you experience any symptoms of overheating, such as dizziness, lightheadedness, nausea, or extreme fatigue.
- Use in moderation: Be careful not to overdo it when using sauna suits. While you can wear them for up to an hour, using your sauna suit twice a week is a good place to start as you get used to it.
- Avoid use in saunas: Sauna suits are not meant to be worn in saunas, and doing so could lead to overheating.
- Choose the right fit and material: Ensure a stretchy fit with enough ventilation to be able to safely cool down the body. Find a style and design that speaks to your individual fight style.
Sauna Suits: Scientific Studies
There is limited research on whether sauna suits produce meaningful benefits. One study confirmed that wearing a sauna suit during exercise does increase physiological strain and leads to higher sweat loss. The study did not reach conclusions about whether that increased strain translates to improved athletic performance.
Another study compared fitness results between groups of participants, some of whom wore sauna suits to exercise and some of whom did not. Both groups engaged in similar exercise routines. At the end of the study, the group that wore the sauna suits showed an 11.7% improvement in VO2 max, or the amount of oxygen their body used when exercising as hard as possible, compared to a 7.3% improvement in the exercise-only group. The sauna suit group also had an average 2.6% reduction in body weight and 13.8% decrease in body fat. The exercise-only group averaged a 0.9% reduction in body weight and an 8.3% decrease in body fat.
Symptoms of Heat-Related Illness
Any activity that raises your body temperature or leads to excessive sweating can cause heat-related illness. Using a sauna suit without properly replacing lost fluids carries a risk of heat exhaustion. Symptoms of heat-related illness include:
- Dizziness
- Faintness
- Fatigue
- Headache
- Heavy sweating
- Low blood pressure upon standing
- Muscle cramps
- Nausea
- Weak, rapid pulse
If you experience these symptoms, remove the sauna suit and stop exercising. Move to a cool place to rest, and let your body cool down. Drink plenty of water or a sports drink to replace lost electrolytes. Without prompt attention, heat exhaustion can escalate to heatstroke, which is a life-threatening condition.